PISCATAWAY, N.J. (September 18, 2014) ― March saw the successful trade launch of DXV by American Standard and the opening of the new luxury bathroom and kitchen brand’s New York flagship showroom at 15 West 20thStreet. Now, taking full advantage of the showroom’s expansive storefront, DXV has invited a roster of leading New York designers and architects to create individual month-long window installations.

“For the DXV launch, we asked six well-established designers from around the country each to create a bath or kitchen space drawing on the DXV portfolio of products,” said Jeanette Long, vice president of brand marketing for American Standard. “Those projects were widely seen online and in print. This series of window displays is a natural follow-up to that program, and a dynamic, ongoing way of engaging the New York design community right on its own doorstep."

The DXV portfolio, named for American Standard’s fifteenth decade in business, comprises more than 70 fittings and fixtures organized into four broad style groupings based on the important design movements of the last 150 years: Classic (1880 – 1920), Golden Era (1920 – 1950), Modern (1950 – 1990), and Contemporary (1990 – today). For the New York showroom windows, the designers have been asked to devise installations that do not simply feature DXV products, but also express the inspiration behind their choice of particular fixtures and fittings, offering a glimpse into the creative process in which today’s aesthetics, practices and technologies interact with American Standard’s rich and varied design heritage.

The DXV showroom window series was launched in July with designer Susan Serra, CKD, CAPS, founder of Bornholm Kitchen, a line of Scandinavian-style cabinetry. Serra was inspired by the DXV Contemporary collection’s polished chrome pot filler. “It’s both modern and timeless,” she said. “Simple, sculptural, classic — terms that describe the aesthetic of my dual vignette.” She surrounded the filler with Danish mid-century modern furnishings and art, which share its cool, clean sensibilty.

In the adjoining window, Serra set a DXV Hillside stainless steel sink from the Classic movement with a DXV Fresno polished chrome culinary faucet from the Modern era on a floor of garden mulch dotted with fine china plates and fresh artichokes. “The mix of disparate elements reflects the calm and chaos of cooking,” she explained. “The kitchen is where all five senses reside — it’s the province of passion.”

In the month of August, Sophia Chan, Senior Associate/Director of New York Hospitality at VOA Architecture, unveiled her showroom window. It featured bathroom fittings from the Contemporary movement, including the elegantly minimal, brushed nickel DXV Percy vessel faucet with stem handle, as well as the sleek, polished chrome Slim showerhead with its bold, angular styling. “We’re choosing these products because they’re modern and exciting,” said Chan, whose multinational firm is well known for its forward-looking hotel, restaurant, and retail design. “We expanded on that idea, turning the window into an equivalently modern architectural space that will set off the products to best advantage.”

Chan installed the Slim showerhead in a forest of upright copper pipes emerging from pooled ropes of Lasvit crystals, suggesting the beauty and dynamism of flowing water. The momentum continued to the neighboring vignette, where a vortex of large copper rings swirled dramatically around the spot-lit Percy vessel faucet.

This month, celebrated designer Laura Bohn, principal of Laura Bohn Design and a member of the Interior Design Hall of Fame, conjures two vignettes featuring the wit and imagination for which she’s renowned. Drawing on the Contemporary movement, Bohn uses a pair of DXV Seagram lavatories — one square, one round — matched with DXV Percy single lever faucets with stem and loop handles. The porcelain sinks are intended for wall mounting, but Bohn will display one on the back of a vintage bicycle, while the other is exhibited atop a 1930’s washing machine drum.

“Both old-fashioned devices not only provide perfect pedestals for the sinks, but also highlight the enormous, yet taken for granted, practical benefits that they, like indoor plumbing and modern bathroom fixtures, bring to our daily lives,” Bohn said. “And of course, the unexpected juxtapositions make for amusing, eye-catching displays.”

For the October window, Alison Spear, AIA, LEED AP, IIDA, Director at ArquitectonicaINTERIORS, is using the DXV portfolio’s overall organizing principal — the four most important design movements of the last 150 years — as direct inspiration. “I’ll explore the whole span of eras, from Classic to Contemporary, creating a time capsule that shows where we were before and where we are now,” Spear explained.

Although they reflect different periods in the history of design, no pieces from any DXV movement are mere reproductions, as stated in the brand's mission. Rather, the DXV luxury fixtures and faucets reimagine and reinterpret historically significant designs, blending the artisanal character of the past with the aesthetic sensibilities and performance demands of today. This means almost any DXV product can be successfully combined with any other DXV product, no matter what their respective aesthetic heritages. Spear’s era-spanning window display will be an eloquent testament to this inherent compatibility.

The November window will be designed by Masayuki Sono and Ostap Rudakevych, co-principals of the dynamic young firm Clouds Architecture Office. The December window will be the work of Barbara Kurgan, principal of BKOK, who has designed interiors, products and furniture collections for such blue-chip clients as Aerin Lauder and Martha Stewart.

American Standard Brands make life healthier, safer and more beautiful at home, at work, in the community and throughout the world. Offering total project solutions for residential and commercial customers around the world with respected brands such as American Standard®, DXV™, Safety Tubs®, Crane Plumbing®, Eljer®, Fiat® and Decorative Panels International®. American Standard Brands is owned by Lixil Corporation(TSE Code 5938), a global building products company. Learn more at www.americanstandard.com, or follow us at twitter.com/AmStandard, https://www.facebook.com/AmericanStandardPlumbing.

Hillside™, Fresno™, Seagram™ and Percy™ are trademarks of American Standard Brands.